Journal entry – May 9, 1954: Nancy was two weeks old on Mother’s Day. She celebrated by waking up at 3:30 AM and staying awake until 6:00 AM. I accompanied her. (Note: I remember that she was lying in bed beside me, eyes wide open and trying so hard to talk.) Her Daddy bought a box of chocolates for her to give me and a card signed, “Daddy and Nancy”.
I followed that first celebration with three more children and many more happy Mother’s Days.
Happy Mother’s Day.
When I gave my youngest daughter a mini-quilt and rack for her anniversary in October, I knew I would be making some more mini-quilts for her. I wanted to give her something with a Thanksgiving theme and remembered a pattern I had picked up in Ohio Amish country several years ago. It’s a fused turkey design that I used to make a wall hanging.
Since my daughter is definitely a child of the 70s, I made up a mini-quilt for her with a very cool turkey, using all of the frantic 70s fabrics left over from other projects I’ve done for her.
I used wide black zigzag stitches to give it an even wilder and crazier 70s look.
Of course, she loved it and it’s in her family room along with a big stuffed orange and green owl and some other 70s stuff.
The pattern is by Becky and Me, #T-1044. Address: 5811 Valley Ave. E, Fife WA 98424 – (253) 380-2284.
Last summer, my youngest daughter asked me to make a beach-themed wall hanging for her family room. Now that summer is over, she thought she’d like to have a quilt representing her favorite era – the 1970s – with photos of her two kids in 70s-style clothes. She chose the fabric and pictures, my oldest daughter worked with the pictures to make them suitable for printing on June Tailor Sew-In Colorfast Fabric sheets and I set to work to make the quilt.
The centerpiece is a photo she took of David Cassidy in concert – her favorite singer from the 1970s. He’s surrounded by fun pictures of the kids ….
…and even one of their Build-A-Bear cheetah in 70s garb.
I used a block called “Sugarbowl” in the 4 corners …
…and otherwise used 6-½ inch blocks with sashing around the pictures.
I used up all of the fabric to make the backing and binding.
Quilting was very simple machine stitching. It was a fun and easy project.
On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day. The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way. This is what I received this week.
1975 – A collage of pictures from an old area amusement park, Fantasy Farms, including vintage tickets. One sunny afternoon, my mother and I took my five-year-old daughter to the park. My mother had just made herself a dress of denim with red bandana trim and also made one for my daughter. I thought it was a cute idea but my daughter was indignant – not only that she went to an amusement park dressed like her grandma, but that all the other girls were wearing shorts and tee-shirts, not a pretty dress. My oldest daughter made up the collage that includes bits from a home movie I took that day and some photo-booth antics of my daughter. She also did a classic 1970s design on the back.
1976 – An RC soft drink bottle commemorating the Bicentennial 1776-1976. This is even more special because it pictures and lists the Presidents who came from Ohio.
1977– A vintage Atlas Strong Shoulder Mason jar and zinc lid with a 1977 Ohio State Fair blue ribbon and entry tag. This is amazing for me to receive because I remember so well seeing this woman’s food entries at the Ohio State Fair for many years – most of them with blue ribbons. The jar dates between 1896-1902. Somehow, the jar, ribbon and entry tag wound up in a Cincinnati antique store where my oldest daughter found it.
1978 – A 1978 Hallmark Date Book with calendar, gift guide and wedding anniversary gift list. Also, a First Day of Issue for the 13-cent square dance stamp, dated April 26, 1978. This is important to me because I had just graduated from square dance class in March of 1978 and continued to square and round dance for over 15 years.
1979 – The 1979 Royal Copenhagen Christmas plate – Choosing the Christmas Tree. I’ve always loved Christmas and this plate will be a nice addition to my decorations this year.
1980 – 1980 issue of Quilt World Omnibook. I hadn’t begun quilting yet in 1980 and I love seeing the patterns, stories and pictures from this era.
1981 – 1981 catalog – Gifts from Top Value Stamps. These were the stamps our neighborhood store handled and it was like a wonderful bonus to collect the stamps each week and finally have enough to exchange for something nice. I found a couple of items in this catalog that the girls remembered having in our 1981 kitchen.
All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.
On July 13, 2012, my two daughters surprised me with a big box of wrapped gifts, informing me it was exactly 80 days until my 80th birthday and I would be able to unwrap one gift a day. The gift items would commemorate a year in my life in some way. This is what I received this week.
1968 – A double CD set of favorite songs from 1960s.
1969 – My oldest daughter put together a booklet of clippings from her 1969 scrapbook. There was quite a bit about Neil Armstrong and the moon landing.
1970 – This is something of a tongue-in-cheek gift – a David Cassidy/Partridge Family trading card. Although I was never much of a fan, my daughter who was born in 1970 is and was delighted to find this gift for me. The lyrics to the song are on the back of the card.
1971 – A Gordon Lightfoot songbook. This is perfect for me since Gordon Lightfoot is my all-time favorite singer.
1972 – A 1972 edition of Sport Story with Pete Rose on the cover. No one lived in Cincinnati in this era who didn’t know Cincinnati Reds star Pete Rose.
1973 – The book Secretariat. Secretariat was the Triple Crown Winner in 1973.
1974 – My youngest daughter knitted a pair of mittens in the classic colors of the 1970s from a vintage pattern.
All of my posts on this wonderful celebration are listed in Family – My 80th Birthday in my index on the right hand side of the page.
Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc. As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).
The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers: The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).
In 1954, I had an 8-month-old baby girl and was looking forward to her first Christmas.
Newsie, 8 months old, 1954
One day in December, I carried Newsie on one arm, a folding Taylor Tot on the other, and boarded the bus to go to downtown Cincinnati. My mother worked in the large Shillito’s department store and I liked to meet her at lunchtime to do a little shopping. That year, for my first Christmas with a baby in the house, I really wanted what we called a manger scene – or creche or crib – with the little figures to set up on a table. We found one with a cardboard stable complete with the Holy Family, angels, shepherds, wise men, sheep, a donkey and a cow.
I fell in love with it but didn’t have the $5 to purchase it. My mother bought it for me on the spot and it has held a place of honor for all these years.
I arranged the set on a low table so that little ones could get a good view of it. I don’t recall Newsie ever touching the figures, but the two brothers who soon came along were inclined to use the stable as a parking garage for their mini cars, with the figures scattered helter-skelter.
When little sister Shanty came along in 1970, she was just as fascinated with it:
“We are just about ready for Christmas, 1972. The tree has been up for a couple of weeks now and Shanty continuously takes down ornaments, rearranges ornaments, breaks ornaments….She fools with the tree constantly and is almost as bad with the manger scene. At any time we can find the whole set down on the floor where she has been ‘playing house’ with it.
December, 1972”
Shanty, 2 years of age, 1972
The stable has been replaced many times. Some of the figures were broken – the wisemen seemed to be particularly hard-hit – and I was lucky to find vintage replacements for them in an antique store about 20 years ago. Most of the figures are original with one headless sheep…
… and just a few chips here and there. Now, the manger scene sets as it always did, low enough for small children to get a good look at the figures and maybe even switch them around a little. I don’t mind the chips when I see little hands moving the angels forward a bit or repositioning the donkey. This year, the great-grandson arranged the figures as if they were on a stage with everyone facing the audience.
Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc. As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).
The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers: The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).
VISITS TO SANTA CLAUS
Soon after Thanksgiving, we got on a bus to downtown Cincinnati and the big Shillito’s department store to visit Santa Claus. This one was taken of Newsy in 1956. Newsy took one look at it and told everyone, “It is the most amazing picture I ever saw.”
Newsy, 2 years of age – 1956
Bar was shy around strangers and refused to have his picture taken with Santa. Instead we have a snapshot of him where he was happiest – straddling his mama’s hip.
Bar, 2 years of age, 1958
By the time Jackson was visiting Santa, we found him in a mall and the pictures were in color.
Jackson, 2 years of age, 1962
“Newsy and I took Shanty to town on 12/20 to see the decorations and to visit Santa Claus. She ate the two little candy canes almost immediately and pestered me to carry her the entire way through town. 12/20/72”
And now the great-grandchildren are having pictures taken with Santa.
My youngest daughter was born in 1970 and loves all things from that era – music, art, fabric, home decor. We were in a quilt shop and she spied this book cover showing a quilt with a 70s look, something I’ve never done in seven years of quilting.
I told her I would make it for her as a 14th wedding anniversary gift. I bought the book, she picked out all of the fabric, and I set about making the quilt. The instructions called for fusible web and stitching down the edges with a zigzag stitch. In my experience, this technique has been OK for wall hangings that don’t get much wear but this quilt was going to be in a family room with two kids, two cats and a very large dog named Frank.
The quilt had to stand up to a lot.
I traced the templates from the book but used them only as a placement guide, making separate templates for the petals. I used a technique I had learned from Eleanor Burns’ Quilt-in-a-Day TV shows and books, using non-woven interfacing. The template is placed on the interfacing and a line drawn around it. Allowing for 1/4″ seams, the interfacing piece is cut out along with a piece of fabric. Having a fabric piece and an interfacing piece right sides together, the piece is machine sewn on the drawn line. Then a slit is cut in the interfacing and the piece is turned and pressed. This gives a nice edge to the applique and it can be machine-stitched onto the background fabric. Admittedly, with 20 separate petals for each of 16 blocks, this added extra time to the project but I think it made a much sturdier quilt.
My daughter wanted the quilt to be longer than the pattern and I added some extra borders for this.
Quilting was very simple stitch-in-the-ditch with outline stitching around the petals. She couldn’t find a cotton backing that fit the 70s mode, so she chose bright Snoopy fleece which added extra warmth. I scanned one piece of the background fabric so I could use it as part of the label, printed from the computer onto fabric and hand-stitched onto the back of the quilt.
I knew my son-in-law didn’t share the love of 70s stuff, so I gave him a check instead, but my daughter and her menagerie love the new quilt, especially Frank.
LILLIAN'S CUPBOARD 